Monday, April 13, 2009

Turtle Creek Revisited

Now that Spring is in the air and the weather has been warmer, Little Man has been all over me to take him back to Turtle Creek for another adventure into nature. I had to call Venus for a reminder of the trail. And then, off we went for a nature hike.

They have drained the creek quite a bit to repair sections of the retaining wall. It's been like that for several months now, so the mud has hardened. The boys thought this was cool to jump off the wall and walk out to the water. The newly dried earth revealed many "treasures". Fresh water clams (giant one pictured here), snail shells, many golf balls and a Texas license plate were among the discoveries.

We had taken stale hot dog buns so the boys could feed the ducks and swans. We spied a mama duck who had 10 little ducklings swimming behind her. They were so adorable. Little Man got a little close to the edge and bloop, sank up to his knee in the mud. He pulled his leg out and lost his Croc shoe. Then he had to stick his arm down in the mud up to his elbow to retrieve it. And it was nasty, stinky lake mud too. They didn't care. They thought it was hilarious. He found a spot a little further down where he could sit on a big rock and wash off all the mud. And on we went.


The Teddy Bear Park is always a great stop. The kids love to climb all over the statues. We also found a fountain that the boys splashed around in. Little Man's buddy was trying to dig pennies out of the fountain. I told him when you take a penny out of a fountain, you are stealing someone's wish and it won't come true. That didn't seem to bother him any and at least five poor souls have now lost their wish. Sorry people!

In some places the creek is 12 feet deep and as wide as a river. in other places, it's knee-deep or less and much narrower. The boys liked the parts where they could wade in the creek and splash around. They chased fish and ducks and skipped rocks, swung on fallen branches and had a wonderful time. After two hours of hiking, I was exhausted and we headed back to the car. A stop at Braum's for ice-cream was a wonderful end to the afternoon!